QEMU: problems with mouse and keyboard settings - virtualization

Question

I'm running Windows 8 in QEMU KVM, and two things make it not very usable.
First: mouse is slow (it lags behind movement) and I see the most mouse. That means every time I move, first I see host mouse moving and then guest mouse slowly gets under it.
Second: keyboard doesn't handle holding keys well. So let's say I press 'a' for several seconds. Normally I would expect a's to be typed every x miliseconds. In QEMU, only one a is written at start, and only when I release the key, all others are written at once.
My configuration is:
<!--
WARNING: THIS IS AN AUTO-GENERATED FILE. CHANGES TO IT ARE LIKELY TO BE
OVERWRITTEN AND LOST. Changes to this xml configuration should be made using:
virsh edit Windows_8
or other application using the libvirt API.
-->
<domain type='kvm'>
<name>Windows_8</name>
<uuid>b0208dac-b52b-1c2f-99a0-464daa8028b1</uuid>
<memory unit='KiB'>8388608</memory>
<currentMemory unit='KiB'>8388608</currentMemory>
<vcpu placement='static'>4</vcpu>
<os>
<type arch='x86_64' machine='pc-i440fx-trusty'>hvm</type>
<boot dev='hd'/>
</os>
<features>
<acpi/>
<apic/>
<pae/>
</features>
<cpu mode='custom' match='exact'>
<model fallback='allow'>Haswell</model>
<vendor>Intel</vendor>
<feature policy='require' name='tm2'/>
<feature policy='require' name='est'/>
<feature policy='require' name='vmx'/>
<feature policy='require' name='osxsave'/>
<feature policy='require' name='smx'/>
<feature policy='require' name='ss'/>
<feature policy='require' name='ds'/>
<feature policy='require' name='vme'/>
<feature policy='require' name='dtes64'/>
<feature policy='require' name='abm'/>
<feature policy='require' name='ht'/>
<feature policy='require' name='acpi'/>
<feature policy='require' name='pbe'/>
<feature policy='require' name='tm'/>
<feature policy='require' name='pdcm'/>
<feature policy='require' name='pdpe1gb'/>
<feature policy='require' name='ds_cpl'/>
<feature policy='require' name='rdrand'/>
<feature policy='require' name='f16c'/>
<feature policy='require' name='xtpr'/>
<feature policy='require' name='monitor'/>
</cpu>
<clock offset='localtime'/>
<on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>
<on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>
<on_crash>restart</on_crash>
<devices>
<emulator>/usr/bin/kvm-spice</emulator>
<disk type='block' device='disk'>
<driver name='qemu' type='raw' cache='none'/>
<source dev='/dev/sda'/>
<target dev='hda' bus='ide'/>
<address type='drive' controller='0' bus='0' target='0' unit='0'/>
</disk>
<controller type='usb' index='0'>
<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x01' function='0x2'/>
</controller>
<controller type='pci' index='0' model='pci-root'/>
<controller type='ide' index='0'>
<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x01' function='0x1'/>
</controller>
<interface type='network'>
<mac address='52:54:00:9f:53:97'/>
<source network='default'/>
<model type='rtl8139'/>
<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x03' function='0x0'/>
</interface>
<input type='tablet' bus='usb'/>
<input type='mouse' bus='ps2'/>
<input type='keyboard' bus='ps2'/>
<graphics type='vnc' port='-1' autoport='yes'/>
<sound model='ich6'>
<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x04' function='0x0'/>
</sound>
<video>
<model type='vga' vram='65536' heads='1'/>
<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x02' function='0x0'/>
</video>
<memballoon model='virtio'>
<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x05' function='0x0'/>
</memballoon>
</devices>
</domain>
I have tried all types of mouse: PS/2, touchpad and USB.
Is it a common problem and is there some solution?
Maybe some guest drivers? (But I have only found too difficult tutorials to install Spice, so if you know about understandable one, please point me to it)
Thanks for any useful advice.

Answer 1

I don't think it is strictly related to QEMU as it may be a problem between QEMU and especially Windows.
Please see this article, it helped me fixing a similar problem few weeks ago.